Zuiderkerk

This year’s forum will be held in the historic Zuiderkerk in central Amsterdam, close by the Nieuwmarkt metro station (take the Nieuwe Hoogstraat exit). From Central Station take the metro (51,53 or 54) to the first stop, Nieuwmarkt (one minute’s ride!).

(Zuiderkerkhof 72, 1011 WB Amsterdam, Netherlands)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Built between 1603 and 1611 and designed by Hendrick de Keyser, the Zuiderkerk was Amsterdam’s first church built specifically for protestant worship. The building has not been used as a church since 1929 but has been put to various other uses throughout the years.
During the last winter of the WW2, the so-called ‘hunger-winter’, Zuiderkerk was used as an emergency mortuarium to store the bodies of those who could not be buried as the ground was too frozen – a poignant reminder of what happens when freedom is lost. Could it happen again?

The City of Amsterdam bought the church in 1968 and extensive restoration was carried out through the 1970s before it became the exhibition space for the city spatial planning department. In 1992, it became home to the City of Amsterdam’s information centre for spatial development, living and construction.

In 2011, the Zuiderkerk became the temporary headquarters of the Dutch Museum of National History and nowadays, it’s possible to rent the church for private and corporate events including weddings, dinners, congresses, receptions and concerts.

Currently the Vineyard Fellowship in Amsterdam worships in the Zuiderkerk.